A Baroque Nun’s Defense of Women’s Right to Learn
What the Work Is
The Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz is a theological defense letter written by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in 1691. It was composed in Spanish in New Spain (present-day Mexico) and stands as the first work written in the Western Hemisphere to defend women’s right to an education. The letter is addressed to “Sor Filotea de la Cruz,” the pseudonym adopted by Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, the bishop of Tlaxcala, who had written to Sor Juana under that name.
What the Book Is About
The Respuesta is Sor Juana’s reply to a letter in which the bishop, writing as Sor Filotea, had reprimanded her for devoting herself to the humanities and to poetry. He argued that such studies were “vain pursuits” because they were not centered in Christian theology, and he insisted that studies in the humanities and other fields must be conducted within the context of Christianity — otherwise, academic pursuits serve no valid purpose. Though he did not explicitly claim that women should be denied an education, he was known for reinforcing traditional gender roles, and he used the rhetorical strategy of appealing to male authority to suggest that Sor Juana’s salvation was at stake if she did not halt her studies.
Three months after the bishop’s letter was published, Sor Juana responded, using rhetorical strategies to address every claim he had made. Her letter is at once a personal defense and a broader argument: it demonstrates the ongoing conflict between Sor Juana and the church over the question of women’s education, and it uses scripture to argue that women belong in theological discourse. Rather than remaining silent, she combined secular and religious references to defend herself.
Key Ideas and Themes
The central argument of the Respuesta is that women have a legitimate place in learning and in theological debate. Sor Juana makes this case not by rejecting religious authority but by drawing on it, using scripture and biblical figures to support her position. Scholars note that she employs exegesis — the careful interpretation of sacred texts — as a way of teaching her correspondent, turning the bishop’s own theological framework back toward her defense.
A distinctive feature of the letter is its rhetoric of humility. Scholars have recognized this humility as a deliberate tactic, a means by which Sor Juana’s voice could be heard beyond the church, especially by male leaders. Her justification for writing is expressed through her profession of obedience, a strategy that allowed her to press her claims while appearing to submit. Alongside this, scholars identify satire, imitation, self-presentation, digression, and vivid description as techniques she used to address the controversies surrounding her involvement in theology.
The letter also engages the querelle des femmes — the “dispute of women,” a literary tradition used to debate and defend women against misogynistic arguments. This tradition dealt with the social neglect of women in social, legal, and intellectual spheres, and it provided a foundation for women writers to voice feminist concerns. In the Respuesta, Sor Juana participates in this tradition by devoting space to comparing herself to Christ and to His suffering. Her use of Christ as a model king, scholars argue, elevates her representation of herself and of queens. The querelle des femmes as a genre typically drew on biblical, classical, and contemporary writings to defend women against those in power, and Sor Juana’s letter follows this pattern.
Scholars have also linked the Respuesta to the hagiography and rhetorical style of Saint Teresa. Sor Juana’s use of epistemic humility — a modesty grounded in the limits of knowledge — parallels the self-efficacy that Teresa employed as a language strategy to be heard within the church. The use of biblical figures and self-presentation in the letter has been examined as a way of making a parallel to Teresa’s hagiography.
Structure and Approach
The Respuesta is a letter, and scholars emphasize that it displays Sor Juana’s command of multiple literary genres and traditions, including the sermon and the imitatio Christi (the imitation of Christ). Her method is rhetorical and highly self-conscious: she represents herself as a woman of letters, and she addresses the controversies of her involvement in theology through a combination of genres and strategies. The letter’s argument proceeds through scriptural reference and exegesis rather than through a single systematic thesis, and its persuasive force lies in its blending of religious and secular learning.
Significance and Influence
The Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz is regarded as the first work written in the Western Hemisphere to defend women’s right to an education. Scholars across literary studies and philosophy have discussed its significance, and it is recognized as a landmark in the ongoing conflict between Sor Juana and the church over women’s education. Sor Juana has been marked as the first feminist to defend women through literary text, and her influence is reflected in her presence on Mexican currency — she has been honored on Mexico’s 100 and 200 peso bills.
According to scholars, the Respuesta is best understood within the context of preceding letters written to and by Sor Juana, including Fernández de Santa Cruz’s initial letter to Sor Juana, the Letter from Sor Filotea, as well as Sor Juana’s letter to her confessor, Antonio Núñez de Miranda.
Sor Juana’s letter to her confessor was written in 1681 and predates the Respuesta by approximately ten years. Originally written for a private audience, this letter was not discovered until 1980. Though the low point of Mexican Inquisition-era censorship occurred approximately fifty years before Sor Juana wrote to her confessor, Sor Juana expressed frustration at her confessor primarily because of his repeated public censure of her and her ideas. This repeated censuring arose from the Mexican Inquisition-era historical context, seeing that heresy was of particular concern in Mexico during this time because the country was a newer Catholic territory. According to scholar Nina M. Scott, Núñez de Miranda’s public censure of Sor Juana was emblematic of her grievances with the church. In her letter to her confessor, Sor Juana scrutinizes the Catholic church’s culture, accusing the imperial establishment of authoritarianism and sexism. Scott asserts that this letter was likely the basis for Sor Juana’s letter to Sor Filotea, noting that it was a space where Sor Juana could privately and safely articulate her frustration regarding her treatment as a woman interested in the arts and sciences.
“Sor Filotea,” or Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, published his letter to Sor Juana in 1690. At this time, he was the bishop of Tlaxcala (Puebla de los Ángeles). The letter was published as a preface to Sor Juana’s Carta Atenagórica, or “Letter Worthy of Athena,” a work that debated theological claims made in a sermon given by Antonio Viera, a Portuguese Jesuit. In his letter, Fernández de Santa Cruz took on the persona of a woman and reprimanded Sor Juana for studying the humanities and writing poetry. Though Fernández de Santa Cruz never claimed that women should not have the right to an education in his address to Sor Juana, he was renowned for reinforcing the status quo regarding women’s gender roles, especially in his position as founder of a convent in 1680.
About the Author
Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, better known as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (12 November 1648 – 17 April 1695), was a Hieronymite nun and a Novohispanic writer, philosopher, composer and poet of the Baroque period, nicknamed “The Tenth Muse,” “The Mexican Phoenix,” and “The Phoenix of America” by her contemporary critics. She was also a student of science. She was among the main contributors to the Spanish Golden Age, alongside Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Garcilaso de la Vega “El Inca,” and is considered one of the most important female writers in Spanish language literature and Mexican literature.
Publication and Editions
The Respuesta was first published in 1691. A later edition and translation into English has been described as an outstanding edition that includes an excellent introduction, chronology, notes, and critical commentary, with both the scholarly remarks and Sor Juana’s work characterized as essential reading for scholars, specialists, students of all levels, and the general reader.
